Allison Reynolds Makes The Grade

Allison Reynolds the Movie? You might have noticed the video I have just posted ( Allison Reynolds the Movie ) and wondered “what on earth is she doing?!?!?!”.

To recap, I have been working to ensure that my blog ranks #1 for the Google search term Allison Reynolds.

For many of you out there that might not be an issue as you have unusual names, or there is not that much in the way of competition, or you have some awesome backlinking going on. But woe is me, my name happens to coincide with that of a character from an 80’s cult movie and that means I have some pretty stiff competition from fan sites and entertainment trivia type sites.

It is pretty important to your internet image to be able to be instantly found by a search for your name. Sure it may seem like a huge vanity trip to be fighting for that #1 position, yet when you think about how hard names are protected in business you should realise that your name is a huge part of your “brand”.

Exhibit A

After 6 months the blog has worked its way up from position 7-9 to position 1 & 2 according to SEO type measurement (yay!!!!) . For the average punter looking for my name there are those two pesky YouTube videos at the top.  Hmm, how does one get around those two. Well first is to have some competition against them, which means….videos.

If you search YouTube for Allison Reynolds this is what you will see

Now I Have a video up there from a year ago for my fund-raising activities and I am going to leave that doing what it does. What I need now is something that can be linked to the blog and possibly get a leg up from the blog’s authority.  You will note that to get to top position in YouTube I need to get 17k+ views and 5 stars. Well when people catch on that there is one frame in my video of me totally naked I am sure I will grab a few more views (that is totally a joke …. maybe).

Until then it will be same old, same old. Building more authority, and I am an expert in me

No Mucking Around

It is nine whole days since the end of the 30DC. In that time I have buried my ex-husband, consoled my heartbroken children, gone back to work after compassionate leave and taken a germ of a business idea and made it reality, just like *that*!.

Today saw the first whisper on Twitter announcing the “launch” of the Secret Women’s Business Network.

Now I haven’t done it all by myself (that would have been absolute madness!) and my partners in crime Barb, Lisa and I have a HUGE amount of work still to do, but it goes to show how quickly and painlessly one can do this kind of thing on the internet. How to achieve this sort of result will be part of the curriculum when we fully open the doors (exciting!).

Don’t expect one of those huge hoopla launches, the SWBN is working on the snowball principal. That our environment and content is so good that word of mouth will keep our membership growing at a steady rate. Also, we are totally committed to ALWAYS making our announced dates.  Nothing beats great project management (another part of our curriculum) and we will be eating our own cooking as they say, by demonstrating this as a cornerstone of owning a “real” business.

I had a huge rush of adrenalin this morning after making that one simple twitter post, all of the work in those 9 days was now a reality! My passion has become a reality and I am writing this grinning like a crazy woman.

Look out world, here we come!

Ed Dale Mankini New Update

Developments in the Ed Dale Mankini saga need reporting on. Sure this blog post is just another way to keep my authority up on the subject, but I hey let’s be ridiculously transparent on this subject because there is absolutely nothing to lose (if only I had a sweet deal with an underwear retailer or something)

So the  Ed Dale Mankini Terapad blog has done what i thought it would do. Which is knock this blog off the #1 spot for the search term Ed Dale Mankini. There are a few reason why it would do that and I will probably talk about them as filler posts as we go through the month of August with the 30DC (after that i am SO not continuing this naughty naughty distraction which sucks up precious time).

I am keeping my eye on the specific Squidoo lens though. That is having another period of Google disappearing and it could make a Lazarus-like come back. Meanwhile this blog should sink in the rankings through time as it really isn’t focussed on the term and I need to stop posting mankini stuff here (as all this is doing is earning me a reputation of being slightly crazy!).

Time to knuckle down… only one week till the Thirty Day Challenge and I am getting pretty excited!

Brain Training

As you may have gathered I have Multiple Sclerosis. One of the symptoms of MS that is not talked about openly, is the loss of cognitive function. It is much easier to focus on the not being able to walk bit, or the blind bit. Personally the cognitive bit is the most frightening to me.

For me the damage manifests in various ways. The most annoying is dysphasia/asphasia which results in me having periods where I cannot form the words for things even though I can see/hear them in my head. Tip of the tongue syndrome is how I describe it. Mostly around nouns.

My struggle to find the word is often amusing to my friends, and I know EXACTLY how a small child feels when you are trying to make yourself understood, and it is just not happening. I haven’t hit the tantrum chucking stage, but black anger sometimes does ooze up from the bottom of my frustration. Mostly I make fun of myself and accuse them of “picking on the gimp”.

Frustrating also is the effect that has had on my writing skills. I have written all my life, and sometimes even been paid for it. In recent years I have been aware of gaps that have appeared in my vocabulary. Much of my writing now is filled with XXXX, my placeholder symbol for a word that I cannot remember. Grammar too, has taken a beating and I must proofread my work several times to ensure I am not expressing myself in the language of the 5 year old. Tense is a bitch!

This is all very depressing. I choose not to be depressed about it, but to do something.

I chose to check around the internet about new neuroscience research. Fascinating stuff and truly inspirational to those of us that grew up with the old “the brain cannot regenerate after damage” which sets up that mindset that what is done to your mind, is permanent. It ain’t.

I believe that just like the six million dollar man, you can rebuild what you have lost. Unlike the six million dollar man it can’t be done over night, and no bionics are available yet. The solution is all through working what you have, to gain back what you had. It takes a while.

What i am doing is reading, writing and speaking as often as possible. Sounds pretty obvious, but yes practice will help rebuild the destroyed neural pathways.

As I am an internet hermit (spending just about all of my spare time shoving information into my head) reading gets a super work out. Though in the past I have been lazy and just went to StumbleOn videos, a habit that now is a treat rather than a daily occurence.

Writing is dead easy too, the blog, content for sites and forum posting. All great work-outs for the burnt out bits.

I also enjoy exercising the left side of my brain through playing logic games such as online Mahjong.When I first started playing I was useless. I would spend ages staring at the tiles trying to make sense of the links. My brain at times would be overwhelmed by the stacks of tiles (hahah mahjong joke there) and freeze up. I would have to away and do something else till I could have another go. Now I have improved out of sight, and only feel sometimes that my focus is on the right side of the board.

Give me a couple of years and I hope to have negated the damage and if I am ultra lucky, no more will have developed.

Product Phobia - I Has It

I have come to realise that I have an irrational fear of creating my own product.  What is so hard about creating something that people will want to pay money for?

I was contemplating this after a series of posts and replies in the Thirty Day Challenge Forums.  In the back and forth of discussion, my opinion about what a beginner should be paying for tools, solidified. I really don’t think that anyone should pay for anything till they know what they are doing with it. But is this a sensible opinion?

If a beginner guitar player buys the top of the range guitar will it encourage them to continue playing longer and hone their craft? If they are given a free instrument will that diminish their enjoyment, or reduce their skills?

The thing here is, when it comes to online products, what I really believe is never pay for anything that is of low quality; and a lot of what I see people produce as products are low quality.  There again a lot of what I see is for free. Vicious cycle 101!

So what is stopping me create a quality product? Nothing at all!

I know I am a creative little soul and have done some kick-arse work for others and in my corporate career. I know I can write (this blog may say otherwise :)). I have passion, I have self confidence in bucket loads. I have seen and paid for various products in the first niche i want to produce a product for and I know I can do better.

What I don’t have is a mentor in this area, someone who can give constructive criticism and not brush things off as ‘well you are just beginning so any old crap is OK”. That is not something i have seen covered. The peer review of a project, who do you choose?

Would love your input